Monthly archives for September, 2011

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys winding up today our series on the show biz canteens of World War II.

Since it was two of Warner Brothers’ biggest stars, Bette Davis and JohnGarfield (pictured above), who were the inspiration behind The Hollywood Canteen, it seemed only natural that that studio would make the film.

Hey, a profit-minded studio head never let an altruistically-motivated venture go to waste.

Warner’s supposedly tried to launch the movie as a multi-studio effort on behalf the troops, drawing on the star benches of each including Fox, Paramount and MGM. But when the other studios balked at loaning our their biggest stars, Warner’s decided to go it alone.

With 1944′s “Hollywood Canteen“, writer/director Delmar Daves decided to use the story of the one millionth serviceman to enter the Canteen as the basis for his plot. The soldier, portrayed by RobertHutton (pictured above left), would win a date and fall in love with a star. His buddy, played by Dane Clark, would have to be content with a dance with Joan Crawford.

Warners wanted their hottest box office star Ann Sheridan for the lead, but she refused the part saying it was it was cruel for the studio to suggest to soldiers that they could meet and fall in love with a star, and that their love would be reciprocated.

Contract player JoanLeslie, reasonably big at the time but almost forgotten today, was cast. She did not have Sheridan’s power to refuse. Sheridan had a point, to be sure, although at least one big star we know of (Hedy Lamarr) met one of her future lovers (another actor) at a Canteen function.

In “Hollywood Canteen,” Davis and Garfield explained what the Canteen was, and why they’d founded it. Hollywood was always good at self promotion.

As with “Stage Door Canteen — A Soldier’s Story,” and “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” filmgoers were treated to several production numbers from noted entertainers, such as The Andrews Sisters. But, unlike the performers in “Stage Door Canteen,” all of the key players (including JackBenny) in this film were already known to movie audiences.

“Hollywood Canteen” was nominated for three Academy Awards (again unlike it’s Broadway counterpart). It didn’t win in any category. Wartime patriotism, it seemed, had its limits.

Still, the movie is worth seeing for its historical perspective. Imagine, a time when the biggest Hollywood stars voluntarily took it upon themselves to personally mingle and socialize with — and entertain — troops in uniform.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys here again to ponder what the Tinseltown version of a World War II “canteen” was like.

Yesterday we told of the glories of the 1943 film “Stage Door Canteen — A Soldier’s Story,” and how it’s not to be missed by anyone who wants to know what REAL talent looked like on Broadway in the 1930s and 40s.

As mentioned, we’re concentrating today on Hollywood’s contributions to the “Canteen” phenomenon.

In late 1942, the Hollywood Canteen opened its doors. Any serviceman (or woman) lucky enough to be funneled through Los Angeles, and who could get in were treated to a glimpse, or even a chat or a dance with a movie star.

Almost every major film star volunteered at the Canteen.

If they could perform, sing or dance or play an instrument, they did. If the women couldn’t dance with the servicemen they worked in the kitchen or on other details, as did the top male stars of the time.

There was a wall of fame, with pictures of stars who were actively serving in the Armed Forces themselves. Over 3000 of the industry’s actors, technicians and others worked as volunteers serving millions servicemen of the Allied Forces in the 3 years the Canteen operated.

In fact, the lucky One Millionth man who entered the Canteen on September 15, 1943 (less than a year after the operation began) was awarded a kiss by Betty Grable, the servicemen’s favorite pin up.

The Canteen was the pet project of Bette Davis (pouring the coffee above) and John Garfield, who enlisted the help of Jules Stein, the founder of MCA, one of the leading talent agencies of the day. Its great success, and the release of the1943 film “Stage Door Canteen,” Sol Lessor’s film released by United Artists, convinced Warner Brothers that they too could mine that field.

They had already released a Canteen-like film, “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” in 1943, featuring the studio’s list of stars doing off beat production numbers (Bette Davis singing “They’re Either Too Old or Too Young”). Now another film seemed in order, one highlighting the contribution of Hollywood in the National Canteen effort.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys, back again with another meditation about the amazing show biz “canteens” of World War II.

The 1943 film “Stage Door Canteen — A Soldier’s Story” not only provided entertainment for the troops and folks back home, but it captured some of the best entertainers of the era on film so later generations could appreciate them.

Naturally, there were the big bands and band vocalists such as vocalist Peggy Lee with the Benny Goodman Orchestra (pictured above).

But there were also some big Broadway stars who people in the hinterlands (and we nearly 70 years later) might never have seen. People such as Katherine Cornell. Take a look because Cornell made no other films!

She was often touted as the “First Lady of the American Theatre.” But the only record we have of her today are a few brief lines from “Romeo and Juliet.”

In “Stage Door Canteen” Cornell is serving coffee and donuts to a line of servicemen and to a very young Lon McAllister – so impressed at meeting her that he tells the legendary stage actress that he himself performed in the Shakespearean tragedy in high school.

Cornell and McAllister’s character then run through a few lines. It’s a poignant scene.

One of Joe’s favorite bits in the film is a production number by famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.

She is dressed as a milk maid but performs, in effect, her sensational strip from her burlesque days. Of course, she begins with having so many clothes on that by the time she’s finished she’s still covered neck to toe, wrists to ankles. But we at least are treated to the wit and personality for which she was noted.

Other Broadway notables who perform in the film include Ray Bolger, Ed Wynn and Ethel Merman. And for the more serious in the audience, the movie made room for a spot by famed violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

Sequences for the film were shot in New York and Hollywood.

Through the years of the War the New York Stage Door Canteen entertained thousands of servicemen. There was even a branch of the Stage Door Canteen in Philadelphia (Broadway always had an “out of town.”)

Who knew when “Stage Door Canteen — A Soldier’s Story” was made that it would in ensuing decades morph from light musical and comedy entertainment into a fascinating bit of cultural history?

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys reflecting today on that singular show biz phenomenon of World War II — the “good war” — called the “Canteens.”

In strictly military parlance, canteens were post exchanges where soldiers could buy refreshments and provisions at sharply discounted prices. The show biz canteens were far outside military installations and provided refreshments and entertainment — for free.

How many old timers (we say that kindly!) out there remember the Hollywood Canteen or New York’s Stage Door Canteen? Not many, we’d bet. But luckily, both institutions have been immortalized on film.

It all started with The American Theatre Wing which had a relief organization back during World War I. At the start of the Second World War in Europe the Wing reactivated its charity relief division, and after Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the fray, that group opened The Stage Door Canteen on 44th Street on March 2, 1942.

Not to be outdone by their Broadway counterparts, the stars of Hollywood, led by BetteDavis and John Garfield, organized and opened The Hollywood Canteen on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles in November of ’42.

There were “Canteens” in all major cities in the United States to help entertain the troops (and keep them out of bars, brothels and pool halls) and provide them with wholesome fun and company. But of course, The Hollywood Canteen and The Stage Door Canteen were the most famous.

Just as the New York crowd had beaten the Hollywood bunch to the opening of a canteen, they beat them to making a movie about it.

As we noted in our Aug. 23 blog about Count Basie and Ethel Waters, the 1943 musical comedy romance that was first was distributed by United Artists, and titled “Stage Door Canteen — A Soldier’s Story.”

Producer Sol Lesser pulled off an amazing feat of show biz organization, putting together a cast including scores of stage and movie personalities ranging from theater stalwarts Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Tallulah Bankhead, Katherine Cornell and Helen Hayes to less lofty types such as George Raft, Georgie Jessel, Gracie Fields, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Gyspsy Rose Lee.

The thin plot of “Stage Door Canteen — A Soldier’s Story,” follows one soldier (LonMcAllister) over one night, and also manages to tell the story of a volunteer portrayed by CherylWalker (pictured above with Katherine Hepburn), who has only joined the group in hopes of being discovered for stardom.

The plot is, of course, irrelevant. The point of the film is to capture all the entertainers who indeed did perform at the Canteen.

Big bands were incredibly poular during the 1940s and the film showcases in addition to Basie’s orchestra, the ensembles of Xavier Cugat, Freddy Martin, Benny Goodman, Guy Lombardo, and Kay Kyser. All tastes were represented.

If this photo (above) looks familiar, that’s because if you are a regular reader it is.

It’s marvelous still from the 1943 musical comedy romance distributed by United Artists, “Stage Door Canteen.” We just had to share it with you again.

There they are — a svelte, smiling Ethel Waters standing at the microphone in front of the full Count Basie Orchestra of the period. (That’s Basie to the left at the piano.)

We covered Basie — a genuine artist whose various big bands set a supremely high musical bar throughout the swing era and into the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies and early Eighties — in a previous blog. (Scroll down and you won’t have trouble locating it.)

Today, we’re concentrating on Ethel.

In our still from “Stage Door Canteen,” Waters was 47 years old but looks younger. Keep in mind that this movie still was taken the same year that she electrified audiences with the sheer athleticism shown in “Cabin in the Sky’s” musical dance numbers. She was in great shape. Waters was what was known in Hollywood of the day as a triple threat — she could sing, dance AND act.

Pennsylvania born and Philadelphia bred, supposedly the child of a teenage rape victim, Waters survived a hard scrabble childhood (and a first marriage at 14) to edge her way into a singing career as “Sweet Mama Stringbean” (she was very thin at the time).

In the 1920′s, she became a popular recording personality, appreciated mostly by black audiences. After a lengthy series of night club and stage appearances, Ethel gradually became a mainstream star.

Her movie and tv career began in 1929 with the role of “Ethel” in “On With The Show” starring Joe E. Brown. Her mark in films came in l949 when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Pinky.” She followed that success by appearing in the stage and later (1952) film version of “Member of the Wedding.”

From then on (she died at 80 in 1977) Waters worked mostly in television, originating the title character in the “Beulah” tv series but only staying for one year (1950-51.) At around this time, Ethel also wrote with Charles Samuels her autobiography, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.”

Waters was never regarded as a first rate jazz singer. According to Leonard Feather’s“The Encyclopedia of Jazz,” she “retained a full-bodied, wide-ranging voice in which vibrato and phrasing are distinctly jazz-tinged.” But, she was “principally a great show business personality and only incidentally and indirectly a jazz performer.”

We at Classic Movie Chat repeatedly make references to “the studio” as in “so-and-so studio head did this or that” or “so and so was under a studio contract” or “the studio system.”

Well, what exactly was “the studio,” and how did it operate? And what did a studio look like?

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers back again to try (with some help) and offer a glimpse of what a sprawling studio in Hollywood’s golden age looked like, and how it operated. Take a look at the early studio photo (above) and let your imagination roam.

There were at least six big studios operating in Hollywood’s peak years roughly from 1930 to 1950, including RKO, Paramount, Universal, Fox, Columbia and, the biggest of them all, MGM. Our three authors estimate that a fifth of all movies shot in the U.S. were “partially shot somewhere at MGM studios.”

In her introduction to the book, Debbie Reynolds recalls first viewing as “a normally innocent teenager” the huge Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sign atop Stage 6 in 1950.

“I used to spend days walking around the big, busy lot while they tried to figure out what to do with me. I’d hang out in the Makeup Department or the Music and Property Departments, of the Scoring Stages, or Rehearsal Halls, or out on the back lots.

“I never dreamt or cared that the composers and writers and performers I was mingling with, and not taking particularly seriously, were the finest and most famous in the world.”

The truly interesting point of departure of “Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot” is its emphasis on process rather than final outcome. The book’s focus “is not in the product at all, but rather the factory responsible for that product. Our goal to to preserve in print and memory…the actual physical place that was once Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.”

Thus the picture book is chocked full of strikingly reproduced photos of various constructed sets: church alleys, a French quarter, waterfront streets, small town replicas, the ‘Ben Hur set,’ Potemkin villages and full formal gardens (used in 1952′s “Scaramouche.”) We get a peak at the lavishly appointed office of studio chief Louis B.Mayer as well as legendary production head Irving Thalberg’s digs.

We get to see all of the places Debbie Reynolds’ hung out in the early Fifties. There’s a nifty spread covering the ‘Esther Williams swimming pool.’ The Bastille set used in 1935′s “Tale of Two Cities” is shown as is the prison set belonging to 1930′s “The Big House.”

We also get to see the payroll department, the property rooms, and the extensive studio costume collections and much more. Then there is a look at the schoolhouse where youthful MGM performers were tutored in between set visits.

Margaret O’Brien, MGM’s answer to Fox’s Shirley Temple in the Forties, recalls growing up on the lot, and being schooled in the famous white stucco bungalow with a red-tiled roof called the “Little Red Schoolhouse.” Among the school’s graduates were Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Freddie Bartholomew, Roddy McDowell, Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor.

“Under the regulations of the State Board of Education and the Producers Association, Metro’s young stars worked an eight-hour day at the studio: four hours each for schooling and performing,” according “Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot.” (There’s a shot of the schoolhouse on page 77.)

Although “Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot” emphasizes the studio’s work routines and its physical assets, there is a fair sprinkling of stars to gaze at especially on page 267, which boasts a 1948 group shot of studio contractees — one of those “more stars than there are in heaven” ensembles.

Shown are nearly 60 grade-A stars includingFred Astaire, Clark Gable, June Allyson, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Red Skelton, Frank Sinatra and Esther Williams. So, get your hands on this enlightening book and take an up-close and personal tour of what the MGM studio was back then.

Here’s a shot of the Metro lot in 1922 before it became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Few Hollywood stars of any era have posthumously endured as long and as persistently as James Dean.

Here we are more than a half century after the actor’s death (at the age of just 24), and his chiseled but oh, so vulnerable good looks still crop up regularly in photos, ads and images.

People are still fascinated by his brief life and career. He is often mentioned in the same sentence as Marlon Brando. (That’s Brando in the center above with Dean to the right. Frankly, we have NO IDEA who that other guy on the left is, nor the identity of the young winsome young lady in the lower center. If YOU know, please let us know.)

Small gatherings of fans congregate each year at the exact spot of Dean’s death along Route 46 at Chalome, California, where the actor’s Porche 550 Spyder slammed head-on into another vehicle. The accident occurred in 1955, just as his movie career was skyrocketing.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie Guys, here again and wondering today about the possibility that Dean’s legend as an actor is now considerably overblown.

Indiana born, Dean’s truncated career was spent mostly in television, taking various roles in several of those marvelous live-drama telecasts of Fifties. His Hollywood movie career began slowly.

The actor had un-credited bit parts in at least a half dozen comedies and dramas ranging from director Robert Wise’s highly regarded “The Day The Earth Stood Still” to Sam Fuller’s ”Fixed Bayonets” (both in 1951). Those were followed a year later by a bit in “Deadline – USA” starring Humphrey Bogart.

Somewhat amusing today given Dean’s legacy as a very serious, very angry actor is his participation in “Sailor Beware,” the 1952 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy, and as a soda jerk in director Douglas Sirk’s 1952 comedy “Has Anybody Seen My Gal,” costarring Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie.

The pictures that made Dean were three: director Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden,” NicholasRay’s “Rebel Without A Cause” with Natalie Wood (both in 1955) and George Stevens’ “Giant,” released after the actor’s death. Dean was nominated in the best actor Oscar category for the first and the third but didn’t win.

For our money, Rock Hudson walked off with “Giant,” handily out performing costars Elizabeth Taylor and Dean. It was pretty much all Dean’s show in the other two films although Kazan wisely surrounded the actor in his starring debut with an extraordinarily strong cast — notably Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Jo Van Fleet (who won an Oscar for her role), Richard Davalos and Burl Ives — in “East of Eden.”

Taking a hard nosed look at “Eden” and “Rebel” today prompts the notion that dying early might have been a terrific career move.

Dean’s performances in each film are certainly competent, but unquestionably marred by Methody acting schtick that was considered at the time the mark of a truly serious actor.

There is a self-indulgent, almost infantile aspect to Deans’s acting, particularly in “Rebel,” that’s off putting. Some contemporary viewers might react by giving his character — and perhaps Dean himself — a swift kick in his pants with the admonition, Grow up!

Always an actor of force — which Dean was not — Brando seemed to get away with this type of thing where Dean does not. You wind up admiring his actorly touches from a distance rather than identifying with the characters he is playing.

One conspicuous flaw was beyond Dean’s control. He was just too old for the parts he was required to play: an angry, alienated high schooler in “Rebel” and the “bad” teenage son vying for his father’s affections in “Eden.” Dean was 24 when he made both pictures, and looks all of it onscreen.

Wood, perfect for her high school role in “Rebel” (she was 17 at the time the movie was made) delivers a convincingly natural performance, the best in the picture.

As writer-critic David Thomson notes, “Knowing what Dean meant (to audiences) in 1955-56 make it possible to understand how Valentino once moved viewers to the quick.” Was Dean the Rudolph Valentino of his time?

Whatever, Dean’s best work comes across as distractingly dated today. Disagree? Let us know pronto, loudly and clearly.

Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys, reflecting on the Academy’s quirk of casting, in what in effect are, sympathy votes. And, please, enjoy today’s great photos of two stars at their physical peaks. Ain’t they gorgeous?

In the history of Academy Awards there are several instances when the voting members of the Academy have obviously let their emotional feelings for a particular actor warp their judgement of a particular performance in a specific film.

In other words, some Oscar winners, though worthy of the award, were given it for the wrong reasons and the wrong picture.

This “consolation Oscar” trend all started back in 1935, when Bette Davis received her first win for the mediocre film “Dangerous.” It was really just a programmer for her home studio, Warners. And it was, at best, a typical performance for the melodramatic actress.

BUT the previous year, 1934, on loan out over at RKO, Davis had given a superlative performance as the evil prostitute Mildred in the Somerset Maugham classic, “Of Human Bondage.” AND she hadn’t even been nominated!

Studio politics undoubtedly played a big part in this. Studios tended to block vote for actors in their own studio films.

So the Academy members corrected their error by not only nominating her in 1935 but by giving her the Oscar she should have gotten the previous year.

Then in 1960, the Academy did it again. The gave Elizabeth Taylor the Best Actress Award for a mediocre performance in an embarrassing film, “Butterfield 8.”

Yet everyone knew it was an Award for Liz herself, and her perseverance at having come through a life threatening illness shortly after she’d lost her husband (Mike Todd) in a tragic accident.

Besides she’d lost the Oscar in the two previous years for really good (nominated) performances in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” in 1958 and “Suddenly Last Summer,” in 1959.

When Paul Newman lost the Oscar in 1982 for his superb performance in “The Verdict,” it seemed the Academy was just never going to recognize his talent. He’d already lost three times before.

But “Gandhi” was the darling film of 1982, and garnered many Oscars including one for Ben Kingsley in the Best Actor Category.

However, once again, Academy members made it right by nominating and voting for Newman for Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” in 1986. Even Newman knew it wasn’t his best work, although he and costar Tom Cruise give solid performances.

Poor Newman and Taylor. Sad to win for a so-so performance when you’ve given so many really good ones. Bette Davis, at least won a second Award and continued getting nominations for years after her “consolation Oscar.”

Hello Everybody. Mr. Joe Morella and Mr. Frank Segers with more on the Oscars and black actresses. (Mrs. Norman Maine is in the living room polishing her statuette.)

In a perfect world, we shouldn’t really care about skin color when it comes to Academy Awards. But our world is not perfect, and in terms of Hollywood’s past, who got an Oscar nomination, AND when, has some importance.

We’ve already refreshed your memory — you were paying attention, weren’t you? — so that you know Hattie McDaniel was the first person of African American descent who was nominated (and won) an Academy Award.

And today we’re bringing you pictures of two more women who broke the color barrier in the 1940′s and early 1950′s with their nominations.

Ethel Waters (above left) gave a stunning performance in the 1949 film, “Pinky,” portraying the grandmother of a young girl who had pretended to be white while studying nursing in the North.

Pinky, played by Jeanne Crain, has returned to the segregated South to help Waters care for her dying friend, a rich grande dame played by Ethel Barrymore. The film was directed by Elia Kazan. And although he received no recognition from the Academy, Waters and Barrymore were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Crain was nominated for Best Actress.

Ethel Waterswas only the second Black actress ever to be nominated.

It had been ten years since Hattie McDaniel. But none of the actresses from “Pinky” won. (OliviaDeHaviland picked up her second Oscar for “The Heiress.” MercedesMcCambridge won Best Supporting for “All the King’s Men.”)

Speaking of Ethel, she didn’t always look as she does here — the stereotype of the generously proportioned “Mammy” slaving over the family wash.

Scroll down and check her out in the photo we ran of Ethel fronting the Count Basie Orch. (Tuesday, Aug. 23). In that picture, she looks every bit the svelte, songstress she was (Ethel was an actress and a singer) in 1943.

It wasn’t until 1954 that a black person was nominated in the Best Actress or Actor Category. That honor went to Dorothy Dandridge for her role in director Otto Preminger’s “Carmen Jones” opposite actor-singer Harry Belafonte.

Dandridge (upper right) was another actress-singer, a glamorous stunner from Day One, who never could play a convincing “Mammy.” Her mother, Ruby Dandridge was an actress who did.

Born in Cleveland in 1922, Dandridge’s all-too-abbreviated career (she was only 42 when she died) included several interesting movies such as Samuel Goldwyn’s “Porgy and Bess” in 1959, opposite Sidney Poitier.

Although Lena Horne had been in Hollywood since the early Forties, she had only played leads in two major films, and was relegated to song inserts in MGM musicals. But please do check her out as the devilish sexpot in 1943′s “Cabin In The Sky” directed by Vincente Minnelli. And while you’re at it, you’ll see Ethel Water’s wonderfully athletic performance in the same movie.

In any case, we maintain that it can justly be said that Dorothy Dandridge was the FIRST African American leading lady in the Hollywood studio system.